JOKE ORDINANCE ENFORCED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 240, 3 October 1908, Page 6

JOKE ORDINANCE ENFORCED.

iUCHELGKS TO MAURY OK WEAIU TAG. J'Yoiu Seattle (Wash.) comes the inJonnation that some weeks ago ih.e CiLy Council oi Milton passed an ordinance compelling every bachelor in the luvvn to wear a brass lagatid to pay an annual tux oi £1 Os lOd. Since the passage of this ordinance, newspapers in almost every State oi the Union have commented upon the novel bachelor's tax which the men in Milton must pay. Marriageable women, young, middle aged, and aged, throughout the United States, have seized upon this information \vith cuger haste, and iis a result Mayor Claude H, \\\.-ekes aud City Clerk F. \Y. lianisbcck, of Milton Imve been showered with .proposals of mjirriago; addressed to these city ollicials with the request that they be .placed in the hands of unfortunate bachelors. At the 'time of the passage of the bachelor's tax ordinance Milton had twenty-eight bachelors. Six ot them have since married to escape the payment ot the tax and the ignominy o;' having to wear a large brass tag. The remainder Jind themselves eonfronted with proposals of marriage from eighty-live members ol' the leininine m'X, and every mail brings additions the unusual leap-year mail addressed fcc Alii ton's bachelors. The bachelor's tax ordinance, wlibh has caused the attention of hundreds of miirriagea'ble female* throughout the I nited States lo be. centred upon Mitoll was originated by Mayor Claude JI. "U'eekes, engineer in charge <>i : the Pug .'t Sound Electrie Railway's power station at Milton.

Mayor U'eekes intended the all'air as a joke, his object in having the ordinance passed being jo get even with Councilman Kay Rainsbetk. Ramsbeck was responsible for the passage of an ordinance levying a tax upon all dogs iu Milton, and as Mayor Weekes has a number of dogs he was ail'ected seriously by the dog tax. Ramsbeck fought strenuously against the ordinance taxing bachelors, but as the remaining members of the City Council are married men, liis was the only dissenting voice when the ordinance came up for final passage.